More than four thousand churches in Russia, which had been closed and plundered by the Bolsheviks after the October 1917 revolution, still lay in ruins or remain in a hazardous state. This is the data from a recent report by Metropolitan Tikhon of Pskov and Porkhov. The Patriarchal Council on Culture compiled a register of dilapidated church buildings in Russia, and Metropolitan Tikhon presented it at a meeting of the Holy Synod in St. Petersburg.

This is a matter of deepest concern for the Russian Orthodox Church hierarchs, according to Vladimir Legoyda, the Chairman of the Synodal Department for the Russian Orthodox Church’s Relations with Society and Mass Media. “However,” he said, “every year the number of churches in a hazardous state is going down. The dioceses make every effort to find ways and means to restore the old churches, often with support from private sponsors. In case a ruined church is an architectural monument, than the restoration work could also be co-financed by the State.”

“There are churches that can and must be restored. There are churches which shall be preserved to prevent further decay,” Vladimir Legoyda explained. Many of these can be found in old abandoned villages.